Rebirth
by LordOfDetails
Summary: An eighth homonculus has been born and found by Dante. After nursing it to a humanoid, she offers it the chance to become human. The homonculus, however, spurns her offer and sets out on a journey to find out why he has come to be.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist or any part of it, but I do own this writing, and will take action if anybody tries to pass it off as their own. That being said, I don't mind if you use any part of this story as long as you properly credit me. **

This is only a prologue (as stated in the title). I've done most of the work on the first chapter and now I basically just have revision left, so it'll be up in the next day or so. Enjoy!

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Rain fell in torrents upon the sleepy little town of Zerotime, and the town was preparing for one of the worst storms of the century; even some of the coalmines had been closed. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed to the extent that the ground itself seemed to tremble in fear of what the storm's wrath would bring. Somewhere, a diligent priest rang the church bell in warning, struggling to keep his balance against the strong winds blowing against the belfry. In a matter of minutes, the storm began to unleash its strength full-force on the small town. By five o'clock, the streets were cleared entirely.

Except for one lone figure.

The rain had accumulated in inches, and the water was already knee-deep to an adult. The thunder boomed and lightning flashed louder and brighter than ever before, and the water began to make small waves. If any passerby had taken the time to observe them, or if there had been any passerby, they would have noticed that the waves had all centered on one target.

One lone target. A man with long tangled gray hair wearing a long worn trench coat treaded through the now hip-deep water as if it had been as sunny and dry as a summer drought. He sheltered a cluster of small wooden chests as if each of them held a helpless baby. And, in a sense, they did. The man quickened his pace, and so did the winds and waves blowing against him. Nature itself was attempting to hold him back, but to no avail. The man stood in front of a small boarded up house. This house had been abandoned years ago, and it was evident why. In an alchemic mishap resulting in a fiery explosion, the entire left side of the house had been carved out, leaving only eerie silhouettes of the victims embedded into the walls as evidence that they had ever been there. The bell rang from the church again, blown by the wind as the earth's final warning. At this, however, the man cracked a smile. He placed each wooden box carefully into what was left of the kitchen and then climbed into it.

The water was shallow in the house, due to the raised foundation, but still not suitable for his plans. He pulled his wrinkled hands out of the baggy and torn sleeves, revealing each to have a series of complex markings making up two transmutation circles. The man pressed them against the cold stone and water, and transmuted etchings into the stone itself to make the circle he needed. He then raised the area in the direct center of the circle, and counted out each ingredient as he pulled it out of every chest. 25 kilograms of carbon, 4 liters of ammonia, 1.5 kilograms of lime, 800 grams of phosphorous, 250 grams of salt, 100 grams of saltpeter, 80 grams of sulfur, 7.5 grams of fluorine, 5 grams of iron, 3 grams of silicon, and bits of 15 other elements. He then examined the water around the etched circle, making sure there was a decent abundance. For his final preparation, he produced a wrinkled photograph from the baggy inside pocket of his coat. The picture depicted a young man with short silver hair and a stern face attired in a military uniform with a silver watch slightly hanging out of one pocket. He laid the photograph on top of the rest of the ingredients, and felt tears joining the raindrops that had been streaming down his face.

"I'm going to fix everything now… I'm going to breathe life into you once more."

He pressed his hands to the cold stone once more, and began to pray. The thunder and lightning met with the blinding light from the transmutation below, and a spectrum of colors radiated from the small house. The man smiled, but soon the spectrum turned to the darkest colors imaginable, and he realized something had gone horribly wrong. Suddenly, he was blown back from the circle and into the water, and could only stare as he lost control of the calamity that was unfolding before him. He screamed in pain, and fell into the water further, clutching his heart.

Or where it would have been.

He felt his body begin to shut down, and took one last look at his creation; he wished he hadn't. A grotesque being met his gaze, showing no humanlike characteristics at all, much less the boy he had tried to repent his sins by reviving. His last words subconsciously formed on his lips.

"Why couldn't it have been me?"

And with that, he plummeted into the water, his body flowing through the flooded streets through the trail of the water. It was clear now that the earth had not been trembling in fear; it had been weeping.


	2. Ch 1: Enter Grieving Widow

An old woman sporting a parasol of oiled paper now walked through the streets of Zerotime, paying no attention to the wreckage all around her. A little girl struggled to walk next to her, practically jogging to keep up. The townsfolk nearby might have noticed her if it were any other day, but they didn't; each person had enough trouble of their own, and didn't give the old woman so much as a passing glance. However, if they had, they would notice something very peculiar about her.

She was smiling.

The sound of a young woman weeping could be heard sweeping through the streets. Meanwhile, all of the men that lived there were arguing about what to fix first, how to fix it, and what to leave demolished. The noise of one angry townsperson after another trying to out voice the entire crowd emanated from all directions, with no end in sight. The woman held the little girl's hand as if she were the girl's grandmother, which she was not, as the pair continued to walk down the street. They arrived at a house that looked no different than the rest of the houses along the street. It was boarded up, extremely damaged, and missing many parts, mainly the house's left walls.

"Is this it?" The old woman asked, staring at the house before her.

"Yeah, it's inside." The girl responded, and ran up the stone steps over to the front door. She pulled at the boards that remained bound by iron nails and made quick work of each one, throwing them out of the way to make room for the old woman, who followed close behind. The girl then walked inside without a word and led the old woman through the first few rooms of wreckage and into what could have been the kitchen. "And here we are," the little girl said coyly, pointing at a grotesque pile of organs that looked as though a corpse had exploded from within. The pile pulsated weakly, and the old woman walked over to it and knelt beside it.

"Change out of that hideous form, Envy, it disgusts me." The old woman spoke sternly, not at all like she was talking to a child, which she was not. The little girl grimaced, and began to glow. Her features began to resemble of an adult quickly, and a being emerged that was the size of an adult, but had a haggard and cruel look when one examined its features. It brandished a leather headband wrapping together several untamed and long strands of greenish hair extending in all directions. It also wore a tight shirt and shorts made of the same leathery material, and a tattoo of a snake-like creature devouring its tail around a six-pointed star on its left leg.

"You don't know how long I've waited for you to say that, Dante." Envy replied, walking up to join the old woman as she examined the entity before her. "Esh… This one's _really_ screwed up… How are you gonna go about feeding it?" Envy spoke as if this experience was normal to it, and it might as well have been.

"You were no beauty either when you were first transmuted. I'll find a way." Dante said, still smiling. "First we'll need to feed it to a form stable enough to move. I'll have to work quickly." She said, and pulled from her pocket a handful of vibrant red stones, and scattered them carefully about the unborn creature. She clapped her hands together and touched it, and the transmutation began. The creature took somewhat of a humanoid shape before their eyes, but still had not begun to move on its own. Dante then used the resources from the old house and transmuted a makeshift wheelbarrow, much like those used to carry the bodies after a disaster. Without a word, Envy hoisted the being into it, and took the shape of an old priest with a solemn look on his face. Dante clapped her hands and transmuted the vehicle shut, extending two pieces of wood the length of the carriage together over their prize. "Let's go." Dante said, slightly more serious. Envy nodded once, and pushed the carriage through the throng of civilians with ease. Dante followed and played the part of a grieving widow expertly, clutching the priest by his robe as he made his way down the street. Again, if anybody had been paying attention, they might've noticed when the priest passed the church and the cemetery. They could've seen that he wasn't paying attention to any of the carnage around him. The thing that would've stood out most, however, was when he pushed the cart out of the city gates and into the wilderness.

And the woman began to smile again.


End file.
